Here We Go With the Spending/Shut Down the Government Stories

Speaker Mike Johnson is leaning into the demands of his right flank, planning to head off a Friday government shutdown deadline with a risky two-tiered spending idea.

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The proposal tees up two different funding deadlines for different parts of the government: one on Jan. 19 and the other on Feb. 2. The strategy ramps up the chances of a shutdown, since Senate Democrats are almost certain to reject the idea. Even some House Republicans have been publicly skeptical of the two-deadline system, which lawmakers have referred to as a “laddered” continuing resolution.

Johnson has told members he plans to bring the plan up for a floor vote on Tuesday, but its chances already seem bleak. The speaker told members on the call Saturday that he expected some Republicans to vote against it and that they would need some Democratic backing, but the minority party has already signaled that they would only support a so-called “clean” stopgap bill, not the two-tiered system conservatives had favored.

Johnson told the House GOP that if this package fails to pass the chamber, he plans to bring a full-year stopgap spending bill to the floor. That package would include blanket cuts to non-defense spending, he said, according to two Republicans on the call.

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